50 DWELLISGS, OUTBUILDINGS, 



Color. 



The color of houses and outbuildings is a subject in which 

 fashion has ranged widely in different directions. Twenty-five 

 years ago, white, white, white, everywhere and for everything, was 

 "the American taste." Suddenly the absurdity of being always 

 dressed in white struck the great public, and parrots of fashion 

 everywhere echoed remarks about " garish white," " neutral tints," 

 " subdued tones," till a mania seized whole communities to j)aint 

 wooden houses, cottages and all, "to imitate brown stone!" Every- 

 thing of wood was dismally darkened and sanded, and brick som- 

 brely stuccoed and "blocked off," as if we were ashamed of our 

 best materials, and must needs conceal them. Our homes, before 

 sepulchrally white, and garishly brilliant, were then crocked and 

 blackened with bogus stone colors. The most beautiful and neces- 

 sarily most pleasing of. all colors for window-blinds, which harmo- 

 nizes with nearly every neutral tint, and with all natural objects — 

 ever-beautiful green — the tenderest and most welcome of all colors 

 to the delicate eye, was thrust aside even by the cultivated taste 

 of Downing ; and in its place dull brown blinds, and yellow blinds, 

 and verdigris-bronze blinds, were the fashion and " in taste." 

 Common sense and common eyesight have been too strong for 

 such a fashion to endure long, and green again greets our grateful 

 eyes on cottage, villa, and mansion windows. After the rage for 

 dark colors, the reaction carried many back to white again, but 

 on the whole the color of our houses is greatly improving. 



In choosing colors, the proprietor needs to guard himself from 

 himself. If he desires some color different from any which the 

 neighborhood affords an example of, let him beware of trusting 

 to his own selection of paints in the pot, or from a specimen patch 

 on the house. Both will deceive him. Colors which appear to 

 have no character at all on small surfaces, are often beautiful when 

 applied to an entire building ; while the tints which please us best 

 in samples may be rank and vulgar on broad surfaces. After 

 giving a general idea of what is wanted, to a skillful painter, it 

 is better to leave the exact shade to him, or to your architect. 

 They may fail to meet your wishes exactly, but console yourself 



